54141625
submission
Mark.JUK writes:
A group of scientists working at one of Switzerland’s two Federal Institutes of Technology have published a new paper in Nature, which reveals how the performance of existing fibre optic networks could be boosted by shortening the distance between pulses of laser light using a Nyquist sinc pulse.
In simple terms the team were able to change the shape of the spectrum to be more rectangular, which meant that the pulses could interfere but the point at which they’re read remains clear (i.e. equivalent to reducing the space between the pulses). It’s claimed that the feat, which was achieved with a simple laser and modulator, could help to deliver speeds that are ten times faster than today’s.
52441883
submission
Mark.JUK writes:
The Ultra-Parallel Visible Light Communications (UP-VLC) project in the United Kingdom has successfully developed Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) technology, which uses tiny LED (Light-Emitting Diode) light bulbs to transmit data via the visible light part of the electromagnetic spectrum, so that a single bulb can deliver speeds of 10.5Gbps (Gigabits per second).
The technology works by causing the LED to flash incredibly fast. At the same time Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiplexing (OFDM) is used to further improve performance by varying the lights intensity and turning each of its three primary colours (red, green and blue) into data channels (i.e. each colour can send data at speeds of 3.5Gbps).
51952517
submission
Mark.JUK writes:
A joint team of German scientists working at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have successfully achieved a new world record for wireless data transfers. The team were able to transmit information at speeds of 100 Gigabits per second by using a radio network operating at the frequency of 237.5GHz and over a distance of 20 metres (note: a prior experiment hit 40Gbps over 1km between two skyscrapers).
The radio signals were generated by a photon mixer device that uses two optical laser signals of different frequencies, which were then superimposed on a photodiode to create an electrical signal (237.5 GHz) that could be radiated via an antenna. But the team aren’t happy with breaking one record and their future attempts will seek to break the 1 Terabit per second (Tbps) barrier.
48720761
submission
Mark.JUK writes:
Alcatel-Lucent's research and development division, Bell Labs, has successfully broken yet another record after it used 155 lasers (each operating at different frequencies and carrying 200Gbps of data over a 50GHz frequency grid) and an enhanced version of Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) to send information at a staggering speed of 31 Terabits per second over a single 7200km long optical fibre cable. Previous experiments have been faster but only over shorter distances or by using a different type of fibre optic cable entirely.
48270883
submission
Mark.JUK writes:
The European Union and Japan have unveiled a joint investment of 18 Million Euro’s that aims to build more efficient fibre optic broadband networks that are “5000 times faster than today’s average European broadband ISP speed (100Gbps compared to 19.7Mbps)“.
The funding will go towards supporting six research projects, which range from an effort to enable fibre optic networks at more than 100Gbps (aka – STRAUSS), to investigating new ways of ensuring efficient use of energy in information networks (aka — GreenICN).
Faster than 100Gbps fibre optic links already exist but the new research could potentially help to bring these closer to homes. Some ISPs already offer 1Gbps+ connections to home users; not so long ago everybody was still stuck on a 50Kbps dialup link or slower.
45024689
submission
Mark.JUK writes:
Scientists working at Berlin’s Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Germany have developed new components that can turn standard “off-the-shelf” LED (Light-Emitting Diode) room lights into an Optical Wireless Local Area Network (OWLAN) that delivers data transmission rates of up to 3Gbps (Gigabits per second).
The new kit is an extension of HHI’s earlier work, which in 2011 delivered the first 800Mbps (Megabits) capable network using ordinary flashing LED lights. Since then the kit has been improved to achieve a transmission rate of 1Gbps per single light frequency (basic LED’s usually use up to three light frequencies) and the operating bandwidth has been pushed to 180MHz from 30MHz before.
44225301
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Gold deposits may be created in a flash—literally. Along fault zones deep within Earth's crust, small cavities filled with fluids rich in dissolved substances such as gold and silicate minerals can expand suddenly to as much as 130,000 times their former size during a major earthquake, a new analysis suggests. In such circumstances, pressure drops accordingly, driving a process the scientists call flash evaporation. And when the pressure in the cavity suddenly drops, so does the solubility of minerals in the water there. Along with substantial quantities of quartz, large earthquakes could deposit as much as 0.1 milligrams of gold along each square meter of a fault zone's surface in just a fraction of a second Typical rates of seismicity along a fault, such as the San Andreas fault zone shown in the main image, could generate a 100-metric-ton deposit of gold in less than 100,000 years.
